st: Stata 12.1 and -spmap-

Dear Listers,
Users of Stata 12 may have noticed that the most recent update (30 January 2012, Stata version 12.1) includes a change in the way -twoway area- works: "-twoway area- now uses an internal drawing routine that is significantly faster over large datasets".
As the author of -spmap-, a Stata command for visualization of spatial data (available from the Boston SSC Archive) that makes heavy use of -twoway area-, I was curious to see the effects of this change on -spmap-'s speed. Though I didn't carry out any formal test, I couldn't help but remark how much faster -spmap- is now when drawing maps made by hundreds of polygons.
I wish to thank StataCorp, especially Hua Peng, for making such a great improvement.
Best,
Maurizio Pisati
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